I have just acquired a Casio EX-Z750, with which I am generally well pleased. However, there are two facilities I shall miss from its predecessor, a QV-5700, and loads of silly features I will never touch. At last I can take pictures ata quality not far short of my film SLR experience, with a device that will go in my breast pocket. This is a real breakthrough. However...

The missing things are...

1. Automatic exposure bracketing, i.e., 3 or 5 shots taken in rapid succession, differing by a specified EV. I had this on my Olympus and on the Casio 5700.

All professional photographers do it all the time (or did in the days of film), and when I see whinges here or elsewhereabout exposure difficulties, I always recommend the use of bracketing, automatically, if possible. Digicams handle shadows better than highlights, in my experience, and often we'll suffer from blown highlights. If you have another shot with some highlight detail in it, taken milliseconds later, computer magic will give you a complete dynamic range in the finished image with much less hassle than selecting the areas of the image and trying to twiddle them just right. If you've got 3 or 5 images in the can, you can use the best (or least bad) one, or mix them digitally.

2. External flash sync socket

Right next to the lens is the very worst place for a flashgun, as most of us know. With my QV-5700 I have a socket and a long lead, and I can put it where I want it. I think it would cost almost nothing to leave this feature in a little digicam. Why has it disappeared? I'll have to spend a small fortune on a slave flash to get back to where I started, and I'd rather spend it on lens quality.

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The things I don't need are anything to do with movies.I, and most good(ish) amateur photographers will all have owned a camcorder (or several). If I want a movie, I'll shoot a movie. I've had four camcorders since 1991, and two-and a-half are still fully serviceable. All this movie camera brainpower on the EX-Z750 is a complete waste of space if you have a camcorder, and I want exposure bracketing etc. instead, please.

I have just acquired a Casio EX-Z750, with which I am generally well pleased. However, there are two facilities I shall miss from its predecessor, a QV-5700, and loads of silly features I will never touch. At last I can take pictures ata quality not far short of my film SLR experience, with a device that will go in my breast pocket. This is a real breakthrough. However...

The missing things are...

1. Automatic exposure bracketing, i.e., 3 or 5 shots taken in rapid succession, differing by a specified EV. I had this on my Olympus and on the Casio 5700.

All professional photographers do it all the time (or did in the days of film), and when I see whinges here or elsewhereabout exposure difficulties, I always recommend the use of bracketing, automatically, if possible. Digicams handle shadows better than highlights, in my experience, and often we'll suffer from blown highlights. If you have another shot with some highlight detail in it, taken milliseconds later, computer magic will give you a complete dynamic range in the finished image with much less hassle than selecting the areas of the image and trying to twiddle them just right. If you've got 3 or 5 images in the can, you can use the best (or least bad) one, or mix them digitally.

2. External flash sync socket

Right next to the lens is the very worst place for a flashgun, as most of us know. With my QV-5700 I have a socket and a long lead, and I can put it where I want it. I think it would cost almost nothing to leave this feature in a little digicam. Why has it disappeared? I'll have to spend a small fortune on a slave flash to get back to where I started, and I'd rather spend it on lens quality.

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The things I don't need are anything to do with movies.I, and most good(ish) amateur photographers will all have owned a camcorder (or several). If I want a movie, I'll shoot a movie. I've had four camcorders since 1991, and two-and a-half are still fully serviceable. All this movie camera brainpower on the EX-Z750 is a complete waste of space if you have a camcorder, and I want exposure bracketing etc. instead, please.

What do you think?

Obviously Z750 is not a camera for professional. First of all, the "Casio" branding is not professional. I think if they create the best pocket camera with professional features, it will price at very high-end. People are just not ready to accept Casio as professional camera and throw more than US$500 on it.

To address your #1, amateur seldom use that feature. Snapshot is one of the main reason for a small camera, so response is very important. Take 5 succession shots definitely delay the next photo you can take, especially if you're shoting people or action. If you're shoting static objects such as flowers and you're so demanding, why not go for DSLR? Even you can choose from one of the best EV taken, you still suffer from lens &amp; noise quality. Also, one can use Photoshop to tune it. Or if someone's LCD monitor at home is not calibrated correctly, it doesn't help you to choose the best picture because your LCD is at wrong color.

To address #2, why someone need another flash when they take snapshot. If someone is so serious about flash photography, a pocket DC will no way meet their requirement comparing a DSLR. Extra socket means more wires and connections internal, and therefore bigger camera size.

To address the last one, most amateur I know whoown a camcorder, keep their camcorder in closet, and use it at most once a week. Bring it out to shot is troublesome, looking weird on the road as people will be looking at you wondering what you're shooting. Going back home, you need the effort to do the conversion to digital format, unless you want to keep all the DV tape in closet. If you don't digitize it, you won't view it again. With the Z750, I keep it at my living room and almost take movie every night whenever I feel like to do so. It's so convinence. The battery is so good you don't have to worry how much photo or movie you've taken. Just shoot.

Too late now, but perhaps you should have considered the EX-P700. I felt pretty much they same way you do about movies (I have a perfectly good camcorder) and wanted a few more "prosumer" features. So I bought the EX-P700 rather than the Z750 - it has a better lens and more control (including a dizzying array of bracketing features).

I also have a Casio EX-Z750 and would appreciate some extra flash power. I find that the pre-flashes cause my tradtional slave to fire prematurely. I have spent several hours researching the various "digital" slave flashes and triggers that are available and am considering several. Two low priced options avaiiable online are the Sunpak adapter which works with a regular flash: ttp://www.photococan.com/itm02102.htmandthe Vivitar DF200 flash which is designed especially for digital cameras: http://www.photococan.com/itm02109.htmIt's difficult to know for sure whether or not both of those would work. It is almost certain that the Vivitar will work because it has a "learning" function, but there may be a little doubt about the cheaper Sunpak adapter which has only 5 settings, some of which are meant fof the red-eye pre-flashes. If I had a Canon or Nikon, it would probably be easier to find out because all the dealers stock those and would probably test the slave for me before I ordered it. Has anyone actually successfully used a slave flash with the Z750?

It's funny how different things appeal to different people. Of the two items you wish the EX-Z750 had, I hadn't even heard of #1, and I'd never even expect #2 on a camera this size. Nor would I have any use for it (an external flash).

However I absolutely love the movie functionality. My EX-Z750 is replacing my older 2MP Olympus C-700. I have a 14 month old son and I take about 200-300 snapshots of him per month. I also have a nice Digital 8 camcorder that I've used tomake movies of him, but the camcorder is just so much more cumbersome to use when all you really want to do is quickly capture something cute that your kid is doing *right now* and likely won't be doing in the next 5 minutes or so that it takes for you to get your camcorder setup and recording. Plus the quality of the movies is darn near identical to my Digital 8, and much, MUCH better than the 320x240 quicktime movies I'd get off old Olympus C-700. Plus the fact that the movies are encoded in MPEG-4 means that I not only get high quality, but I can store a lot a too, up to 32 minutes on a 1GB SD card.

Yes, you're quite right. I dithered over the P600 and P700, and failed to jump. It was a rave review from my friends in Wrexham Cameras that pushed me over the edge and into purchase of the Z750, with which I am delighted, apart from the missing bits I have mentioned.

I still have the Casio QV-5700 with its bracketing and external flash socket, but it's a bit too big to go in my pocket, and it's in semi-retirement. I bought my 14yr-old son a point&amp;shoot Sanyo W4 recently, &amp; he's taking excellent shots. However, it doesn't tell him what shutter speed it's going to use, so I'm hoping to wean him on to the QV-5700 soon, to teach him some of the technical details.

All the folk here who say I need a dSLR should try sticking their dSLRs in their breast pockets - OUCH! The *size* of the Z750 is the real breakthrough, and the quality is well up to dSLR standards. I have a professional photographer friend with a dSLR, and we regularly play with each others'cameras, and compare shots. The dSLR will do the job well, but you won't have it with you when you want it.

Ooopss... I actually bought the z750 for the Mpeg4 moives.... its so compact compared to even the small camcorder, so I just need tobring one z750 instead of a digi cam + camcorder for outing and tours.....

The Casio Z750 fires the Nikon SB 800 while in SU-4 Mode.Â* I was just experimenting this morning so I could use this small camera for my Thanksgiving Snaps.Â* My family is quite initimidated by my DSLR and I can never get truly candid snaps of them. Â*With this set up, I can be much more discreet.Â* Just bounce the flash off of the ceiling in the room I am shooting in!!!Â* I am quite pleased with this option as an alternative to the Casio's Built in Flash!!!!Â* No more RED EYE!!!!Â*Â*[img]/forums/images/emoticons/cool.gif[/img]II just turn